In about 60 years’ time, the world could run out of quality topsoil, the non-renewable resource we currently rely on to grow 95 percent of our food. Intensive farming practices and anthropogenic activities are to blame. How will we feed ourselves?

Green Renaissance is a dystopian speculation about the future of food and farming. In 2090, artificial food is grown in magnetically levitating organic structures controlled by artificial intelligence to avoid contamination from our toxic environment—ensuring the survival of the human race in a land made barren by our own doing. Designed by RMIT students Shanshan Wei, Mengke Lian and Haonan Ma, this exhibition builds on a University design studio led by Dr Ollie Cotsaftis.

To complement this exhibition, an evening event in partnership with The Capitol will provide a platform for a conversation on the future of food and farming.

• Event details: April 1, 2021 at The Capitol – RMIT University;

• In company of David Holmgren, environmental designer and co-originator of the permaculture concept;

• University of Melbourne Associate Professor Alex Johnson, a researcher in the fields of plant nutrition and bio-fortification; and,

• RMIT University Dr Pirjo Haikola, a designer and a researcher working on regenerative marine design projects, and whose current work Urchin Corals is exhibited at the NGV Triennial;

• An event moderated by RMIT University Dr Ollie Cotsaftis.

This evening of conversation will be followed by the projection of Soylent Green, a 1973 ecological dystopia by Richard Fleischer.